March Bandsters: MASTER THREAD

[ajoneen 0]

Sueangel - A HARD DEATH is set in South Florida, so in a couple of weeks I'm heading down to Naples for a week of research (and ridiculous humidity and bugs).

I can hardly wait. I loved the way you wrote about the city and kind of made it a character in the story. I've spent time in Naples, where are you staying? True you will not be there in its best season but you will also not have to deal with the snowbirds either. I can't say you won't be tempted by some good eats. I've been to a few nice restaurants down there.

[Fenton 3]

Thanks, A - I like how I wrote the city, too. (Patting self on back...)

In Naples, I'm staying with friends - the county's Chief Medical Examiner is my BFF since we trained together in Miami, and her husband is an ex-cop and a gun nut, so they're perfect contacts for S. Florida murder and mayhem-type stuff. But they're not real restaurant people, so I've managed to avoid that world. Although, in fact, paying too much money for tiny perfect plates would probably be better for me than paying very little for the massive quantities of food that is the custom at most chain restaurants.

One NSV: when I look at my photo on the hardcover of PRECIOUS BLOOD, I can recognize how much weight I have lost.

Edited July 6, 2008 by Fenton

[Fenton 3]

And another thing! As I was stirring my Benefiber this morning, a hair drifted down off my head and fell into the glass. And I realized that that was my life as a bandster in a nutshell: Constipation and Hair loss.< /p>

[Fenton 3]

So, it's time for me to pony up - next week, touch wood, I should hit my 100 Pound Loss marker. I'd said that I was going to, at each 50 lb increment, give my total weight loss in dollars to Heifer.org, which uses donated money to buy livestock for poor people around the world.

By chance, there was a piece about the work Heifer does in the NYTimes on Thursday. Here it is - it's quite inspiring and kind of charming:

July 3, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

The Luckiest Girl

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

This year’s college graduates owe their success to many factors, from hectoring parents to cherished remedies for hangovers. But one of the most remarkable of the new graduates, Beatrice Biira, credits something utterly improbable: a goat.

“I am one of the luckiest girls in the world,” Beatrice declared at her graduation party after earning her bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College. Indeed, and it’s appropriate that the goat that changed her life was named Luck.

Beatrice’s story helps address two of the most commonly asked questions about foreign assistance: “Does aid work?” and “What can I do?”

The tale begins in the rolling hills of western Uganda, where Beatrice was born and raised. As a girl, she desperately yearned for an education, but it seemed hopeless: Her parents were peasants who couldn’t afford to send her to school.

The years passed and Beatrice stayed home to help with the chores. She was on track to become one more illiterate African woman, another of the continent’s squandered human resources.

In the meantime, in Niantic, Conn., the children of the Niantic Community Church wanted to donate money for a good cause. They decided to buy goats for African villagers through Heifer International, a venerable aid group based in Arkansas that helps impoverished farming families.

A dairy goat in Heifer’s online gift catalog costs $120; a flock of chicks or ducklings costs just $20.

One of the goats bought by the Niantic church went to Beatrice’s parents and soon produced twins. When the kid goats were weaned, the children drank the goat’s milk for a nutritional boost and sold the surplus milk for extra money.

The cash from the milk accumulated, and Beatrice’s parents decided that they could now afford to send their daughter to school. She was much older than the other first graders, but she was so overjoyed that she studied diligently and rose to be the best student in the school.

An American visiting the school was impressed and wrote a children’s book, “Beatrice’s Goat,” about how the gift of a goat had enabled a bright girl to go to school. The book was published in 2000 and became a children’s best seller — but there is now room for a more remarkable sequel.

Beatrice was such an outstanding student that she won a scholarship, not only to Uganda’s best girls’ high school, but also to a prep school in Massachusetts and then to Connecticut College. A group of 20 donors to Heifer International — coordinated by a retired staff member named Rosalee Sinn, who fell in love with Beatrice when she saw her at age 10 — financed the girl’s living expenses.

A few years ago, Beatrice spoke at a Heifer event attended by Jeffrey Sachs, the economist. Mr. Sachs was impressed and devised what he jokingly called the “Beatrice Theorem” of development economics: small inputs can lead to large outcomes.

Granted, foreign assistance doesn’t always work and is much harder than it looks. “I won’t lie to you. Corruption is high in Uganda,” Beatrice acknowledges.

A crooked local official might have distributed the goats by demanding that girls sleep with him in exchange. Or Beatrice’s goat might have died or been stolen. Or unpasteurized milk might have sickened or killed Beatrice.

In short, millions of things could go wrong. But when there’s a good model in place, they often go right. That’s why villagers in western Uganda recently held a special Mass and a feast to Celebrate the first local person to earn a college degree in America.

Moreover, Africa will soon have a new asset: a well-trained professional to improve governance. Beatrice plans to earn a master’s degree at the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas and then return to Africa to work for an aid group.

Beatrice dreams of working on projects to help women earn and manage money more effectively, partly because she has seen in her own village how cash is always controlled by men. Sometimes they spent it partying with buddies at a bar, rather than educating their children. Changing that culture won’t be easy, Beatrice says, but it can be done.

When people ask how they can help in the fight against poverty, there are a thousand good answers, from sponsoring a child to supporting a grass-roots organization through globalgiving.com. (I’ve listed specific suggestions on my blog, nytimes.com/ontheground, and on facebook.com/kristof).

The challenges of global poverty are vast and complex, far beyond anyone’s power to resolve, and buying a farm animal for a poor family won’t solve them. But Beatrice’s giddy happiness these days is still a reminder that each of us does have the power to make a difference — to transform a girl’s life with something as simple and cheap as a little goat.

I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground, and join me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kristof.

[Fenton 3]

So, next week, on the Magic Day, I shall write a check for $100 to Heifer. And can there be any doubt which livestock I'll be choosing to give?

Ducks, baby.

Five flocks of ducks.

Edited July 6, 2008 by Fenton

[Desdemona 48]

Fenton--We're all looking forward to your hitting the 100 mark this week. I'll check every day to join in on the count down.

Sueangel -- I must have missed this! WHAT lake in W. Mass do you live on??!! I have 2 places here --- Westfield and a small place in Williamstown. I stay in Williamstown a few nights a week during the academic year for an easier commute to Albany. Since W. Mass isn't that big we are probably close.

[Desdemona 48]

OHH!!! And Sueangel!!!! WHERE in TARNATION did you find Wii Fit in W. Mass???!!!

[ajoneen 0]

One NSV: when I look at my photo on the hardcover of PRECIOUS BLOOD, I can recognize how much weight I have lost.

I think it is time to post proof of this fact. With clothes on.

[ajoneen 0]

very quiet today.

[Fenton 3]

Oh please! You know how much we (or, rather, many of us) hate having our photos taken! I'm documenting my progress with photos on the 15th or so of every month, but no way am I putting them up! I'll post my author photos when I have the next cover done, sometime early next year, when I'll have made some REAL progress!

[Fenton 3]

I am an individual devoted to ritual. Every morning, I have the same thing: that peanut butter/banana Protein shake that I love so dearly, and which keeps the Fentonian machine well-oiled and humming until about 1:30PM or so.

The flavour depends on the banana, I've realized, so I'm kind of psychotic in my banana selection. They must be absolutely ripe - on the border of over-ripe - so the batch I bought yesterday aren't quite ready, and are ripening in a paper bag on my counter. They'll probably be good to go tonight, so I'll peel them and freeze them overnight, and return to my staple tomorrow.

Today, though, without my frozen bananas, I had to go a different route. I took my vanilla SFO, my Protein powder and my salt (key!), and mixed in three tablespoons of blueberry sauce (after reading a piece in the NYT about the 11 Great Foods We Are Not Eating, which includes frozen blueberries, I decided that that was One Great food I Would Be Eating). It blended up into a rather unattractive grey liquid, but was pretty tasty. However, without the frozen banana, it doesn't have that Dairy Queen Blizzard-type consistency that the banana one offers. Now it's barely 10 AM, and already my stomach is starting to rumble.

Oh well. I'll remind myself that a rumbling stomach is the sound of fat-burning in action, and I'll have lunch a little early today...

Edited July 6, 2008 by Fenton

[Fenton 3]

Oh, that reminds me: when I was researching the nutritional solidness of my shake, I learned something about which I'd always wondered. I'd always asked myself whether a ripe, sweet banana is more calorific than a bland, unripe one. It seemd that the answer would be No - for that to happen, the banana would have to create calories, which would mean that it would be creating energy, which didn't seem likely. I figured that it had to be due to the balance of sugars and starches - sugars are stored in an unripe banana in the form of starch, which is converted to sugar as the banana ripens.

What I learned this week was that a ripe banana has a much higher glycemic index than an unripe one, meaning that the sugars are higher, and get into the bloodstream faster when the banana is ripe.

Not mind-expanding, really, but interesting.

To me, at least!

Edited July 6, 2008 by Fenton

[sueangel 0]

Fenton--We're all looking forward to your hitting the 100 mark this week. I'll check every day to join in on the count down.

Sueangel -- I must have missed this! WHAT lake in W. Mass do you live on??!! I have 2 places here --- Westfield and a small place in Williamstown. I stay in Williamstown a few nights a week during the academic year for an easier commute to Albany. Since W. Mass isn't that big we are probably close.

So I live on Lake Thompson which is a very small lake in Palmer MA - right off the turnpike - actually I have cousins in Westfield so I am up there occasionally and at 65 mph on the pike it is very easy to get to!

As to the Wii Fit - I actually had signed up at Amazon.com to get it as soon as it was available. I got my Wii summer of 2007 when I saw it in Walmart (they had just put them out) by luck - my friends are still having trouble getting the Wii itself - they seem to sell out instantly. I really love it... and so do my grandchildren who have every other game system in the world it seems!

[sueangel 0]

Sueangel - I envy you your house on a lake in W. Mass! Cool and quiet, I bet. My dream writing location!

quote]

Quiet is right - no gas $$$ for the boats LOL. Actually I have very quiet neighbors but we live on top of each other - we are all former cottages turned into homes - I have been here 34 years now - divorced for 23 so as you can imagine my house needs lots of work! But it is not always quiet - my brother in law was murdered on this lake last year..... but it will never be proved now because the guy who did it died in jail (this guy murdered his girlfriend too) - it was an awful time for all of us..... if you want to read about it go to www.wwlp.com and do a search for timmy hurley and all the news reports will come up.

OK enough of that- I by the way am trying not to obsess with the pounds because my NSV are coming at me daily - and I am lucky enough to have a good clothes source - so just fitting into new things ever day is great for me. But I will Celebrate your 100# loss with a dance!

[Desdemona 48]

sueangel--Holy Moly!! I was born at Wing--and I worked there 4 years at the Griswold Center before returning to school for my final degree. There is a very soft spot in my heart for that place.

Right now I'm in Westfield stressing through some professional writing, PT, and the final throws of a tenure process but if you'd like to -- I'd love to talk with you in few more weeks.